Substantive debate likely to be swamped by impeachment

That’s it from me in Atlanta after the fifth Democratic presidential debate, which produced a number of substantive answers but will likely be swamped by the impeachment inquiry.

Even though tonight’s moderators raised a number of issues that had previously been ignored by debate questioners, such as paid family leave and voting rights, it seemed unlikely that the resulting discussion would cut through impeachment coverage.

The headlines about Gordon Sondland’s bombshell testimony confirming a quid pro quo in the delaying of military aid to Ukraine is sure to dominate news headlines and chyrons tomorrow -- which could be bad news for the lower-polling Democratic presidential candidates who hoped to break out tonight.

The next chance the candidates will get to debate will be Dec. 19 in LA, but four of the contenders who participated tonight still need to qualify. The question of whether tonight got them closer to that California stage will be answered in the coming days.

Harris criticizes candidates who take black voters for granted

Speaking to reporters in the spin room after the debate, Kamala Harris criticized Democratic politicians who only speak to black voters when they’re trying to get elected.

“That’s just not working, and it’s not right,” the California senator said. “It’s not fair.”

Harris went on to list a number of issues that disproportionatley affect African Americans, such as criminal justice reform and gun violence, to argue Democratic candidates should be paying more thoughtful attention to black voters.

Cory Booker’s campaign said it saw a major fundraising bump after the New Jersery senator’s closing statement in tonight’s debate, in which he asked viewers to help him qualify for the December debate and praised the work of civil rights leaders like congressman John Lewis.

Jenna Lowenstein (@just_jenna)

Update: we raised more in the the 11pm HOUR than our the previous best online fundraising DAY in this campaign. https://t.co/tooEazXZjs

Over in the spin room at Tyler Perry Studios, Tom Steyer is taking questions about his culinary preferences from Macey Hensley, a correspondent for “The Ellen Show” who told journalists before the debate that she is (almost) ten years old.

Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland)

Current vibe in the spin room. Tom Steyer is being interviewed by a 10 year-old for the Ellen Show.

Tonight’s discussion about the importance of black voters in the Democratic Party threw a spotlight on most candidates’ struggles to appeal to African-Americans.

In fact, among the four top-polling candidates, only one person has consistently attracted strong support from black voters: Joe Biden, who had a shaky performance tonight.

Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley)

Candidates may not have attacked Buttigieg by name but let's be clear: Booker + Harris saying "The Obama Coalition" was meant as a reminder that if a candidate lacks support among black voters it isn't a small thing, it's a death nail to their electability case

Speaking to the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland after tonight’s debate, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez largely demurred when asked whether he believed Tulsi Gabbard’s attacks on her fellow candidates were harmful to the party.

“The voters will decide,” Perez said. “They’ll listen to everyone. They’ll make evaluations of who said what and whether they agree with what they’ve said and then they will make their decisions, and we’re going to start in Iowa real soon.”

But Gabbard is already attempting to fundraise off the attacks, slamming Kamala Harris in an email to supporters after the debate.

With the debate wrapped up, there doesn’t appear to be a broad consensus on Twitterland on which candidate won the night. The only agreement seems to be that the debate moderators were the true winners.

Gabbard had previously gone after Harris at the July debate, and the California senator responded in kind tonight by accusing Gabbard of spending Barack Obama’s whole presidency trashing him on Fox News.

Candidates largely avoided attacking Pete Buttigieg, the newly minted frontrunner in Iowa, until the very end of the debate. With just a few minutes left until the event’s conclusion, Amy Klobuchar and Tulsi Gabbard raised doubts that the Indiana mayor had enough experience to become president. Buttigieg deftly responded by attacking Gabbard’s judgement in sitting down with Bashar al-Assad, calling the Syrian leader a “murderous dictator.”

Joe Biden appeared shaky, stumbling over some rather simple facts and choosing poor wording on an answer about gender violence. The former vice president incorrectly identified former senator Carol Moseley Braun as the “only” African-American woman elected to the Senate until Kamala Harris noted she also fit that description, and Biden promised to keep “punching” at the issue of gender violence.

Amy Klobuchar delivered one of the best answers of the night by describing the double standard that exists for women in politics. She earned applause and Twitter plaudits for saying, “If you think a woman can’t beat Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi does it every single day.”

The debate’s four women moderators won praise for their questions, which focused on previously undiscussed issues like paid family leave and housing affordability. Tonight’s event was also historic; for the first time ever, the majority of debate participants (counting moderators and candidates) were women.

The blog will have more reactions to the debate coming up, so stay tuned.